Increasing expectations that the Fed will cut US interest rates at its December 19th meeting drove stock markets up sharply worldwide with the main Nasdaq heading for one of its biggest ever one-day gains.
Irish reaction was more muted but there are strong signs of money moving back into the cyclical old-economy stocks although technology shares were boosted by the strength on Nasdaq and the buoyant trading comments from telecoms giant Nokia.
It was a busy day on the corporate front with Irish Life & Permanent spending €430 million to buy the TSB Bank. Irish Life shares were seven cents higher on €12.77. Other financials were mixed with Bank of Ireland losing some of its recent gains to close down 28 cents on €9.72.
The move into cyclical stocks boosted CRH and Smurfit which both traded in size. Smurfit was up seven cents on €2.05 while CRH gained 31 cents to €17.11. Athlone Extrusions jumped 25 cents to €1.10 ahead of an expected takeover announcement tomorrow while Barlo, which will bid for Athlone, gained six cents to €0.92.
There was unusually heavy trading in packaging minnow Oakhill where 2.2 million shares - almost 4 per cent of the total - went through the market at an all-time low price of €0.23. Speculation was that Tweedy Browne may have been the seller.
Despite the broad gains on international markets, Irish technology shares were decidedly mixed. Iona and SmartForce soared on Nasdaq while Baltimore was 55p higher in London on £3.90 sterling. This will not be enough to prevent Baltimore being ejected from the FTSE-100 today along with fellow technology stocks Bookham and Sema. Trintech hit an all-time trading low of €7.05 on the Neuer Markt before recovering to close down 61 cents on €8.09.
